


Katana

by Haldane



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s02e01 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gen, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2012-11-02
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:19:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haldane/pseuds/Haldane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Hart arrives with quite a variety of weaponry.  One in particular catches Toshiko's eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Katana

Gwen ran the scanner up and down Captain John Hart's form, watching warning markers flick alight over the entire display. She tried to keep the disbelief out of her voice as she called off the readings. _Two weapon man_ , for crying out loud! This guy had a better arsenal than a medium-size African nation.

She watched as Jack piled up the weapons on the tray Ianto held serenely next to him, for all the world like a stereotypical unflappable butler. Instead of a guest's calling card, the tray was soon loaded with blasters, stunners, small bombs, guns... Gwen just hoped that John wasn't carrying anything that Torchwood's own technology wasn't able to detect.

The scanner came up clean at last, and Jack let John hop down from the lift before starting what Gwen hoped was a highly selective tour of the Hub. Jack seemed pleased to have the chance to show off his little realm, but she didn't trust John even when he was standing still with both hands in plain sight.

Walking across to get a better look at the tray, Gwen shook her head slowly at the sheer number of items, and then tried not to giggle at the thought of how long it must take to stow all this stuff every time he changed clothes.

"He's got a _katana_." The words came softly from just behind her, and Gwen turned to see Toshiko step forward and take the sword from the bench where it lay. 

'He's got a bloody nerve, that's what he's got," she replied.

"No, the sword, it's a _katana_ , a long sword. The samurai in the feudal period used to carry them paired with a _wakizashi_ , or short sword." Toshiko picked up the sword in both hands, one on the hilt and one grasping the scabbard. She pulled it halfway out and stared, completely absorbed, tilting it towards the light. To Gwen's surprise, Tosh then plucked a hair from her head and drew it across the edge, smiling at the result. "He didn't seem like the type to carry a dull blade."

"You - ," Gwen wasn't quite sure how to phrase it. "You're worked with swords before?"

"My grandfather taught me," Tosh answered, still engrossed in studying the sword. "I was his only grandchild, so it was me or nobody, even though he said he shouldn't really be teaching a woman."

"One of those men-only things," Gwen agreed. She'd seen enough of that in the police force, despite all the progress made in the last couple of decades.

"No, not at all. Women of that class were considered to be as much samurai as the men. But he had no experience in teaching a woman to fight. 'It's different,' he used to tell me. 'Every man you meet will be bigger and stronger than you, so you have to be faster and more accurate to compensate.' " 

Tosh slid the sword the rest of the way from its scabbard, putting the sheath aside in order to take the hilt in both hands. She held the hilt low, near her hip, the length of the blade cocked diagonally across her body. Her left foot went forward, the blade swinging down and around, light flashing off the polished metal. Tosh twisted her wrists sharply, sweeping the steel in a sharp curve designed to parry her imaginary opposition before stepping back into her original pose.

Gwen stared in shock at the combination of beauty and menace in Toshiko's motion. She'd always subconsciously dismissed the smaller woman as no physical threat to herself, but seeing her speed and control forced Gwen to reconsider. 

Toshiko turned towards Gwen, but her eyes were staring into the distance. "A woman has to pick her targets more carefully, since her best chance of success lies in ending the battle as quickly as possible." Tosh sighed and blinked, visibly coming back to the present. "It's a lovely sword, anyway." She resheathed the weapon and put it down as Jack called them to the conference room.

==============

Gwen didn't think she'd ever had a situation shift ground so many times so quickly. First John was an enemy, then a friend, then an enemy again, a prisoner and now he was the one dictating terms with her pinned helplessly to his side.

The men were all yelling, while Gwen fought to think through the noise. At the moment, she could only see one option; the bomb had to go from Cardiff, and since it was attached to John and she was attached to him, they would have to go with it. There were few enough minutes left as it was - _eight minutes ten_ \- she heard Ianto say distinctly through the wash of sound. 

Then she saw Tosh step out from behind Jack, moving to his left so that her right side was obscured by his body. Gwen realised there had been a tiny gap of time from when Tosh had left her Rift predictor screen to her appearance now; judging from her determined expression she'd put something into motion. Tosh held Gwen's eyes, and then flicked her gaze down. Gwen followed her look, and saw the very end of the hilt of John's sword, showing between Tosh's waist and Jack's hip. 

Tosh was holding the _katana_.

Gwen looked at the bindings, heavy and blocky around her slender arm. There was no way the metal would be severed by the thin blade. The other end was solid around John's arm, muscular wrist barely showing beyond the heavy doubled-back cuff of his ridiculous military jacket.

She'd only spent a second glancing down and back up. As her eyes met Tosh's again Tosh's eyebrows lifted, asking her a silent question. Damn! What had Tosh been saying before, when they had been talking about the sword? There must be a clue in that as to what Tosh wanted her to do. 

"Seven minutes," came Ianto's level voice, refusing to add to the panic. Gwen tugged at the manacle again in sheer annoyance, John easily yanking her back into position. 

Then it was all clear. She'd been willing to sacrifice her entire life to remove the threat; Tosh was asking her much less than that. A woman had to pick her targets carefully, and the only possible target here was the weakest link in the chain.

Gwen dropped to her knees, the movement stretching out both her arm and John's as he reflexively leant the other way to counter her. She dug the fingers of her right hand into the grille of the floor, and used the slight advantage given her by her suddenly lowered centre of gravity to hold the whole tableau of herself, him and the handcuffs motionless. 

Tosh moved instantly, sweeping the sword up even as she stepped around Jack. The blade came down once, faster than Gwen would have believed possible. It sliced cleanly through the two slim bones of the forearm, avoiding the complex delicacy of the wrist joint.

Tosh had just cut Gwen's hand off.

Gwen only thought it had been chaotic before, but now all hell broke loose. With the abrupt loss of resistance, John stumbled away and fell. Tosh knelt at Gwen's side and grabbed her now-freed arm, pulling her belt off with one hand and whipping it around the stump to use it as a tourniquet. Gwen just sat on the floor, staring at her arm, dimly aware of Tosh shouting orders.

"Owen! Get me a container and some ice. Call the Heath and tell them to get a microsurgery team ready. Jack, Ianto - get him out of here!" 

Owen lunged down the stairs into the autopsy room, while Jack and Ianto caught at John's arms and hustled him towards the garage. Gwen's brain finally decided it was all too much, and she fainted as she went into shock.

==============

Gwen looked around the room and tried to hold on to her fragile composure. She'd thought it would be easier on all three of them if she packed away Toshiko's things while the boys did Owen's. She resolutely squared up and taped the first of the flat-pack cardboard boxes, before starting on the books.

She managed to stay detached from the reality of what she was doing until she went into the bedroom. For the first time since Captain John Hart's initial visit she was confronted with the _katana_ that Tosh had used. She'd never found out exactly what had happened to it; now, suddenly, it was _right there_ , the long blade scabbarded and mounted on the wall, resting across two wooden pegs.

Gwen flexed the fingers of her left hand and looked at the thin scar encircling her left forearm. There had been a scar on Jack's arm also, although it had disappeared since. He'd cut himself and smeared blood on the alien bomb, confusing the DNA sensors. It had come off in time to let Torchwood throw the bomb and Captain John through the rift separately. Gwen still wasn't sure if she was happy about that particular last-minute rescue or not. She shook her head to dismiss the useless musings and picked up the sword.

Gwen could swear she heard Toshiko speaking to her. _A woman has to pick her targets carefully_ , the voice whispered in her mind. _Her best chance of success lies in ending the battle quickly._

Gwen took the sword down from the wall and placed it carefully by the door. There was no way she was going to let it go into storage and be forgotten. 

And if Jack tried to argue with her he'd find out exactly what a battle was.


End file.
